


Symbols of Time

by Alethia_II



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 3 am writing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author likes to play with canon and timeline, Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, Gen, The Author Regrets Nothing, what is canon in Doctor Who anyway?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-08 16:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16433006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alethia_II/pseuds/Alethia_II
Summary: She is returning. That is what the Doctor was told the night before Pompeii was forever lost in ash and pumice. However the person Lucius was referring to is not the same one Doctor thought it was.Back when she had only just regenerated for the first time, these words would leave her fearful and perhaps a bit frantic before getting her wits together and try to get rid of the Daleks in whatever fashion was available to her. She distinctly remembered what she had done before she took off for yet another orbital battle and could not help but to wonder if the plan the Doctor had went wrong, leaving Daleks free to roam the universe and lay waste wherever they went.Well then...here they go again.





	1. Chapter 1

“Warning! Temporal suspension protocols disengaged.”

She could taste blood in her mouth. Even though she was hazy and nauseous from being knocked out, the first thing she was able to sense clearly was blood in her mouth. Probably had bitten her tongue during the uncontrolled tumble in the time vortex. That the ship was in one piece and mostly operational after such event was something Romana was tempted to call a miracle. Leaning back in the pilot’s chair, she slowly focused on what her eyes could see. The left side of the control console was now sparking randomly since time now finally continued to flow; several alarms were filling the cabin with noise and although it was dark, it became clear to her very quickly that she crashed into something sidewise.

The questions that needed answers now were: how long had she been trapped in the state of temporal suspension, where and when she crashed and what kind of dire situation caused the suspension protocols to disengage. They were only ever meant to disengage when either a retrieval team would show up to extract the pilot or in case of absolute emergency that presented immediate danger to integrity of the ship and safety of the pilot. First things first though. She needed her sonic screwdriver to release the chair harness and she needed heavy set of painkillers. Screwdriver first. The moment she moved her hand to reach into the pocket of her uniform, Romana bit her tongue again and prompted more blood to trickle out due to the pain radiating in her hand. Half broken fingers. Lovely. Breathing through the pain, she managed to retrieve her sonic and free herself from the chair. Sudden rise to her feet was also a wrong move because the ship’s interior suddenly became blurry and there was pain throughout most of her torso.

All of this would heal without the need of regeneration though it would be on a slower pace. She was tempted to will herself into a healing coma but apparently the conditions were not favourable for her to do that. Closing her eyes in order to get at least alleviate the headache and nausea, Romana decided to ascertain the situation.

“Computer, status report.”

“Primary core damaged. Secondary core operating at 67% capacity. Emergency systems operational. Temporal module offline. Weapon systems offline. Shield oscillator damaged, primary defence shields offline. Env-”

“Stop.  Is the sensors system operational?”

“Sensors operating at 73% capacity.”

“Then be nice and tell me where and when I am.”

“Location: Earth, 75 kilometres north of island Madeira, 3063 meters below sea level. Temporal location: June 26, 2009.”

Romana winced again when she jerked forward upon hearing the location. “Below sea level? Are you telling me I crashed into the ocean floor?”

“Affirmative.”

“Great, that’s just bloody fantastic. Any explanation as to why suspension protocols were disengaged? I am still a bit hazy but I see no rescue in here.”

“Protocols were disengaged due to planetary cross-dimensional spatial transference.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Protocols were disengaged due to planetary cross-dimensional spatial transference.”

“Yes, I heard you the first time. But that’s not possible, it’s a planet and it cannot move through space just like that.”

“Sensor data confirm primary analysis.”

Romana sighed, “Alright, fine. What caused the transference?”

“Based on the quantity of neutrino and tachyon particles in planet’s thermosphere, the transference was achieved by artificial means.”

This interaction reminded her of first year learning module sessions. Mind numbing and frustrating. “Well thank you, obvious, I fell short of coming to this conclusion myself. Identify the source of these artificial means.”

“Unable to comply. Long range sensors offline due to secondary core power conservation.”

Biting down on her lip instead of tongue again, Romana finally moved out of the pilot’s chair in order to reach overhead bulkhead not five steps away and retrieve the medkit inside. The pain practically exploded in her right side by the time she was sitting again.

“Spleen probably.” She muttered, opened the medkit and started rifling through it. “Cellular kit, fibrometer, bone fuser, organ sterilizer, fenostin, virtanate...oh here we go, just what I need.”

The small ampoules of black and teal coloured liquids looked more like biohazard waste rather than medications and Romana was not looking forward to burning sensation the teal coloured one would cause once injected but hey, it spared her the immediate need of a healing coma or worse regeneration. Once the burning sensation passed, the pain started to go away and breathing was no longer difficult.

“Fingers next.”

Focusing on her right hand again, she could see the small bones had shifted into odd angles under the skin and muscles; and even the tiniest of movements caused blinding pain. She supposed she should be grateful they didn’t shatter from impact. Holding bone fuser bit awkwardly in her similarly injured left hand, she let the device do its job while contemplating on what could have moved Earth from its place. Not many species in Earth's current time period had this kind of technology, knowledge or ability.

“Warning. Incoming transmission on all standard Earth frequencies. It is a planetary aimed broadcast.”

From one siege to another it appears, Romana thought. “By all means, let’s hear it.”

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”

Back when she had only just regenerated for the first time, these words would leave her fearful and perhaps a bit frantic before getting her wits together and try to get rid of the Daleks in whatever fashion was available to her. Now, after four hundred years of continuous war with them, she would barely blink before checking her weaponry was fully charged and just return to the fight. She was worn out by war and what’s worse, if the Doctor was to be believed, drastically desensitized to care as much as she once did. She was not without concern though. She distinctly remembered what she had done before she took off for yet another orbital battle and could not help but to wonder if the plan the Doctor had went wrong, leaving Daleks free to roam the universe and lay waste wherever and whenever they went.

Despite the pain being completely medication dulled, it felt wrong to move around with deeply bruised and battered body. Yet Romana could distinctly remember times when she had been in even worse states but was still required to move and act. The sonic screwdriver came to life once again in her hand. There was no point in staying in a submerged, crashed star fighter while Daleks were doing who knows what to the planet so she focused on enabling the transmat and putting the ship in sort of a sleep mode until such a time when she would be able to retrieve it and effect repairs.

“Warning. Diverting power to transmat system will reduce secondary core’s energy output and may compromise life support system.”

“That’s fine; I have no intention of staying here anyway where I am of no use to anyone.” Romana stated. “Can you initiate ship’s restoration program after I transport out?”

“All system will have to be shut down for complete restoration process.”

Romana rolled her eyes. “You could have just said yes. Stars, sometimes I feel like I need to reprogram you so you can stop being so redundantly obvious.”

Cross wiring controls of different systems and rerouting power to circularly supply only one was not a smart thing to do strictly speaking from engineering point of view; but there was no time for elegant solutions or triple precautions. After making sure the transmat was functional and would not teleport her to wrong place, say active volcano, Romana checked that her weaponry was indeed fully operational and charged; and tried to decide where she should go.

There was the UNIT option but Daleks would have attacked and destroyed all military bases on the planet by now, including UNIT's. Then there was Torchwood, an institution that she had the misfortune to run into a couple of times during her solo excursions to Earth and briefly wondered if the Doctor was aware of its existence but she dismissed the option due to unknown variable she could not control. The easiest Doctor waiting point would be London since for some reason they preferred to visit London and British Isles when on Earth, regardless of the point in time.

She was brought out of her brief contemplation by computer announcing yet another warning. “Sub-wave network signal detected.”

“Sub-wave?! Humans cannot have sub-wave network, the principles of the sentient software are way beyond 21st century Earth.”

“Do you wish to connect?”

“Why not? I might as well get a glimpse of people using it.” Romana sat back down in the pilot’s chair and looked to the monitor on her right that came to life.

The screen was split in four sections however all the faces but two were unknown to her. One familiar face talking was Sarah Jane Smith, a former companion of the Doctor Romana had come to respect and even care for. Not that the Doctor knew anything about her little run-ins with Sarah Jane in the past. The second familiar face was Harriet Jones; who was supposed to be the prime minister of Britain but obviously was not. An alarming fact for Romana that she would be pressed to investigate but present situation called for different priorities. She could only assume other people present were also former companions of the Doctor.

They were discussing the Doctor’s whereabouts and his lack of presence despite the obvious emergency going on; and how to bring him to Earth. This apparently meant making a phone call by using a supercomputer to activate all phones at the same time, boosted by the power of the temporal rift that emanated from Cardiff. Though Romana had to admire the brilliance of the plan, one she felt only someone who spent time in Doctor’s company would come up with because it was actually possible but also completely bonkers, there was however a snag in the plan. It would set the Daleks swarming right towards the source of the sub-wave network.

Not one to stand around idle, especially after all the adventures with the Doctor and ones she had undertaken on her own; Romana yet again checked her weaponry, her sonic and that the portable transmat was fully charged before taking it off the dock and onto her wrist while inputting Torchwood Three’s co-ordinates from the screen in front of her. They were the best chance she had of locating the Doctor once he arrived, what with their confiscated alien equipment and their leader very obviously being familiar with the Doctor.

“Computer, initiate restoration program ten seconds after I teleport.”

“Acknowledged.”

Smile tugged at her lips. “Excellent. No time like the present.”

***

Romanadvoratrelundar appeared in a flash of white light over a thousand miles from her crashed ship in an underground base that could really do with some redecoration.

“Oh wow, this sewer chic is not it for me.”

“How did you get in here?” The man she did not know the name of asked, one hand resting on the holstered revolver though Romana was doing her best to hide the disbelief as her senses went haywire in his presence.

“Come now, there is an alien invasion of your planet and I obviously do not look like I am from around here either. I'm here to help. Sort of anyway.” She tilted her head, allowing herself a fraction of a moment to enjoy the pleasant scent coming from the absolutely impossible person in front of her. “Though this is not really your planet either, is it, 51st century man? Pheromones, Boeshane Peninsula. A breathing, moving fixed point in time and space. Aren't you most marvellous?”

The man stared at her in shock, seemingly oblivious to alarms blaring all around them.

“Excuse me but we are in a bit of a spot here.” The woman with nice Welsh accent interrupted. “So who are you and how can you help? Do you know the Doctor?”

“Know him? Yes. I am Romanadvoratrelundar, Romana for short.”

“That is a mouthful.”

“So I have been told. For one, I can help scatter the signal to bounce of other planets so Daleks would have really difficult time finding the source while you are calling the Doctor. And should TARDIS appear, I know how to track her. So let's get to work, shall we?”

Not waiting for approval or direction to a computer terminal, she simply approached the nearest one, logged herself in with the help of the sonic and started typing; leaving the other three people in the room with no opportunity to even protest but rather they just picked up their work again with a prompt of rather frustrated sounding cough from Harriet Jones.

“Those circles...That’s circular Gallifreyan.”

Romana briefly unglued her eyes from the monitor in front of her to look at the man again, “Indeed. Though I suppose you have seen it before during your escapades with the Doctor. What are your names? I did not quite catch them while I was listening to your conversation.”

“Ianto Jones.”

“Gwen Cooper. And this is Jack Harkness, our boss.”

Jack Harkness still stared at her from his spot with poorly hidden wonder, amazement and for some reason fear. “But how are you here? You can’t be a Time Lord. They’re all gone; Doc said he’d be able to sense any other of his kind out there.”

“Obviously my presence here says otherwise. To be truthful, I have only woken up from temporal suspension an hour or so ago. Last thing I remember before getting knocked out is participating in a battle in Gallifrey’s orbit. Just my life’s luck to be woken up to Daleks invading yet another planet.” Romana put finishing touches on the sub-wave subroutine that would be sent along with the call.  “They’re like universal cockroaches. You just can’t seem to be able to stamp them out.”

“Very deadly universal cockroaches.” Gwen remarked frightfully, not that Romana could blame her.

She was intimately familiar with fear and pain Daleks brought and could cause, “Anyway, I have completed the subroutine that will help us avoid the attention of Daleks for a time.”

Ianto frowned, looking at his monitor and then her. “That was fast.”

“Yes well, I have done it before. Child’s play really.”

“If you say so. Let’s just make that call.”

Romana winced, quite visibly she imagined, when Jack pressed the switch and opened the rift manipulator to maximum. Such a sudden, strong surge from a time rift grated on her senses in a way of someone dragging nails across the blackboard. An entirely unpleasant feeling. She also wondered if at least Jack realized the signal going out was on a repeating cycle of four segments. Like a heartbeat of a Time Lord. Probably not.

“Right.” She devoted her attention to the computer terminal again. “Let’s see if there are any satellites still operational up there. It would certainly make it easier to track down a TARDIS, especially with alien technology boosted computers.”

“You’re very sure that this will work.”

“Ianto Jones, this plan is sure to work considering how mad it is. Besides, if you had known the Doctor as long as I have, you’d know he always appears whenever and wherever you least expect him to. Question is will the TARDIS be damaged and how much? She’s a museum piece and this whole place has been pulled out of temporal synchronization with the rest of the universe. For sure there will be power drainage which means vulnerability against the Daleks.”

“Don’t you have a TARDIS as well?” Gwen asked, “Since you are like the Doctor.”

“I have not had a TARDIS for quite a while now. Mine was blown up during the war.”

“Which brings me to ask how are you even here? You didn’t just appear out of thin air.” There was that underlying fear and wariness in Jack’s voice again, why was that? She did not remember meeting this man at any point in her lifetimes and doing something that would explain them.

“My ship got knocked into the vortex during the battle and it spat me out right here above Earth. And the ship crashed into the Atlantic while I was still unconscious though I forgot to ask the computer to establish how mcuh time passed between the crash and my awakening. So even if I wanted to engage Daleks in space combat, I cannot because the ship needs fixing.”

“Something’s happening.” Ianto announced, cutting through the chatter and diverting attention to the monitor in front of him.

Something happening was an understatement. Even before the satellites she connected to picked up the artron energy spike, she felt Doctor’s presence slamming into her like a sledgehammer. But of course that the idiot would keep that part of himself completely open, as if he was the only Time Lord left in the universe. It was bit of a struggle but she managed raise her mental barriers and leave only that subtle feeling of presence Time Lords usually felt in the backs of their minds. It was perplexing that he was not sending anything back though, almost as if he was completely ignorant of the fact that she had a definitive telepathic presence. 

In the midst of people talking over each other, more than happy to see Doctor’s face on their screens; Romana’s hearing managed to isolate the voice she now knew belonged to the Doctor and found herself surprised at how old he sounded despite his outward appearance telling the exactly opposite story.  The happy reunion via sub-wave network was cut short by possibly the worst option for an interlocutor Romana could imagine. Davros, the creator of the Daleks and all around not in the least a nice person. If he could even be defined as person any longer.

“Figures the head cockroach is alive as well. What a beautiful day to wake up to.”

“You know this man?”

The snort that went past her lips was loud and Romana was certainly it could also be labelled as very unladylike in some Earth’s cultures. “That is not a man. I am not quite certain I’d call him a person either.”

“What do we do now?”

The monitor in front of her beeped, screen showing a red dot where TARDIS was materializing, “You sit tight. I’m going to find the Doctor and see how we deal with this mess. Handsome, you coming along or what?”

“What?”

“You don’t have hearing problems do you? I see a vortex manipulator on your wrist though I can’t tell which model. I do know it can also be a teleport. So are you coming along or are you sitting this out with your friends here?”

“I-I don’t have teleport base code.”

Romana typed the coordinates into her transmat wrist band, “Base code is 4/9 oscillation. But if you want to check, ask your friend who used that experimental teleport, Martha Jones.”

“How did you-?”

“What? Just because I didn’t participate in conversation because I was connecting to the satellites and kept the sub-wave network hidden, doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. I am capable of multitasking. Ask her and let’s go. Daleks are capable of tracking a TARDIS on technologically less developed planet.”

Judging by his smile when he typed in the base code in his manipulator, she could tell Martha confirmed her data. The weapon he retrieved from his office was unlike anything she had seen before and was most certainly custom made though probably efficient against Daleks otherwise Romana doubted he would bother running to get it.

“Is the coat really necessary?” The looks she got told her everything. “Okay, always keep stylish during planetary invasion. Let’s go.”

“Nifty looking gun.” Jack remarked when he came to stand by her side as the weapon in her hand came to life with low pitched whine.

“Rather deadly too.”

“Got it.” Jack looked at his friends and colleagues. “I’ll come back.”

The way they looked at each other told Romana there was a story behind that assurance.

“I’m coming back.”

“Don’t worry about us. Just go.” Gwen stated as she handed him his customized weapon.

Ianto smiled with uncertainty and simply added, “We’ll be fine.”

“You better be.”

***

The street they appeared in was an absolute, abandoned mess that looked bore resemblance to a ghost town scenery. Or it would look like that except for the Dalek that clearly shot the Doctor just a second before. Before she even squeezed the trigger on her gun, Jack had already destroyed it.

“Great aim. That a custom ray gun?”

“Yeah, from a defabricator.”

A skilled engineer as well it seemed. “Nice.”

“Thanks.” Jack replied before rushing off to the Doctor and two women Romana assumed were or are his companions while Romana did a quick visual scan to make sure there wasn’t any other Dalek lurking around before following after the slowly retreating party.

Really this kind of inattention to the surroundings got people killed. Romana barely stopped herself from yelling ‘what’ upon entering the TARDIS she had had so many adventures in when she saw the control room. He really let the place go, Romana thought to herself. While she could appreciate the coral, organic look, it could really do with a fresh paintjob and good cleaning. By the stars, that torn seat!

Pained groans coming from the Doctor snapped her to more immediate concern. Regeneration in the middle of Dalek invasion was furthest from ideal situation but needs must. The other option was not even something she was willing to entertain.

“What, what do we do? There must be some medicine or something.”

Figures the idiot did not explain regeneration to his latest companion. Honestly, it’s been centuries. Romana had hoped that by now he would not keep at least that a secret from his companions. Why did he insist on picking up random mortals, mostly humans, when he never told them important need to know things?  

“Just step back.” Jack instructed, setting down two large weapons on the torn chair. “Rose, do as I say, and get back. He's dying and you know what happens next.”

“What do you mean?”

“He can't. Oh, no. I came all this way.”

By the stars, what melodrama. Romana reached into the belt pouch to retrieve hypo-syringe, noting that it was a good that she remembered to take the small med kit with her before transmatting off the ship.

“What do you mean, what happens next?”

Over the blonde woman’s shoulder appeared a glowing right hand. “It's starting.”

“Right. Stand aside.” The women flinched at her commanding tone, obviously they had paid no attention to who followed them into the TARDIS.

Reckless lot. The Doctor’s reaction was even more pronounced. Despite the crippling pain that must be coursing through his body, he was staring at Romana like she was a ghost. Perhaps she was.

“You have the worst timing ever, Doctor. Here,” she quickly jabbed him. “Should take most of the pain away, albeit this is still not the stuff that was used back home. As for control, well you never really had that so good luck. Pity I didn’t get to know this you.”

She allowed one gentle moment of caressing his face even though he was starting to glow before she stepped away though not as far away as everyone else present.

“Here we go. Good luck, Doctor.” Jack drew two women close to himself in protective gesture against the impending regeneration. 

“Will someone please tell me what is going on?”

“When he's dying, his er, his body, it repairs itself. It changes. But you can't!” This crying protest confused Romana somewhat.

Granted, regeneration was not a process everyone besides Time Lords could fully understand or accept; she had seen relationships break when inevitably the new regeneration was in regard to personality stark different to the old one. But protesting the happening of the regeneration did nothing to stop it. Nothing but inflicting yet another mortal wound would stop it. She could just tell that the blonde was very attached to this regeneration. It was a potential problem though not one Romana found most concerning or pressing.

“I'm sorry, it's too late. I'm regenerating.”

Bright golden light erupted in the console room which prompted the humans to squint from sheer intensity but Romana barely blinked. Considering everything, the Doctor at least deserved the respectful dignity of not being met with frightened, confused gaze when the regeneration was done. Well then...here they go again.


	2. Chapter 2

Having known the Doctor for as long as Romana did, there was precious little amount of things that the Doctor could do to surprise her. Using up only a portion of regeneration energy to heal from Dalek's lethal shot but not changing all the way through however was one of those things. Any Prydonian would have been impressed with her ability of hiding her emotions behind icy, blank face; and yet she was sure certain amount of disbelief was visible when the glow of regeneration died down to show the same face from mere seconds ago.

"Now then! Where were we?"

And as if she had not been standing right in front of him, he dashed to the control console to probably check if there were any Daleks converging on TARDIS's location before kneeling down next to a container Romana was just noticing, holding a severed hand floating in some form of preservation liquid that was now saturated with regeneration energy.

"There now." He blew away some of the glow and looked up at the three humans present, all of them in varied states of shock and disbelief while he grinned like a satisfied idiot. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me."

Apparent vanity issues. Most excellent.

"So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"

"You're still you?"

"I'm still me."

"You can hug me, if you want. No, really. You can hug me."

She has had enough of this, "You are the most frustrating and contradictory person I have ever known Doctor."

His whole posture stiffened and he turned slowly to face her. Yet again looking at her as if she were a ghost that could disappear at any given moment. "Romana."

"Did you really just abort a full regeneration process for your looks? I have known you to be many things, vain to such point wasn't one of them."

"H-How?"

"While not as smart as me, you're intelligent enough to figure out from which point in time I come from based on my appearance. I have to say, the last thing I could have possibly hoped for upon awakening was a planetary Dalek invasion."

His brown eyes reflected a storm of emotions while taking in her appearance. "The entire Time War is time locked."

"Hmmm, apparently the Moment was not as efficient as we thought it would be." Romana leaned on the railing behind her. "The time lock should have been impossible to breach but that insane Dalek did so that explains Davros and his Dalek cohorts. Me, I got knocked into the vortex during the orbital battle and I crashed here on Earth before the Moment was activated. Still have to ask the computer how long ago the crash happened."

"If that's the case, I should have been able to sense you."

"No. Temporal suspension would have blocked off my telepathic signal. And distress beacon was probably one of the things damaged either during the battle or crash. But never mind all of that, we need a plan. I-" The shaking jolt of the TARDIS and loss of power cut her off.

"They've got us. Power's gone. Some sort of chronon loop." The Doctor reported with unconcealed frustration.

"Yes, well, what is done is done. Now we need to figure out how to get rid of the Daleks and Davros. Again." Romana concluded, taking out her guns to adjust power settings. "I suggest you distract Davros once we're on board and I'll sneak around to find a soft spot. It shouldn't be too hard; you love to talk for hours on end."

"No guns." He looked dead serious and stared at her guns like they were most vile things he had ever seen.

"Oh great, a hypocritical pacifist, that's just the personality trait that we do not need from you right now. What exactly do you think you can do here, eh? Ask Davros over for cup of tea and some biscuits? Be realistic here."

"You're fresh from war, that's all you have ever known in this life." He was actually being serious about the whole, she realized with slowly swelling annoyance and disbelief.

"I take offence to that remark."

"Romana just don't."

She tilted her head, "Or what? Are you going to try to command me?"

The way he was looking at her, she could tell he was rather tempted by her challenging tone to answer in same fashion. This probably why Jack decided to interfere in growingly tense conversation.

"Sooo...this massive Dalek ship at the centre is called the Crucible. And I am guessing that's our destination."

The red head joined in, "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"

"Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

"It's the darkness."

Well that didn't sound ominous at all.

"The stars were going out."

"One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could. Well, so I could..."

"What?"

"So I could come back."

He actually smiled at that. She had absolutely missed a lot of time in his lives.

"Shut up. Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."

Romana pinched the bridge of her nose, letting the air back out slowly, tamping down on her irrational anger. "You have got to be kidding me."

The smile on his face was gone, horror at the news and annoyance at Romana cutting in showing instead. "Can we not do this right now? I think Daleks are a bigger problem."

"As if. Here she is, telling you about humans from a parallel Earth building functional reality shredding dimension cannons because she couldn't get over you and you're grinning like a school boy with a crush. And I'm the problematic one because I am fresh from the war. You absolute hypocrite."

"What business of this is yours? Who are you?" It seemed that Rose did not particularly enjoy her chat time being interrupted.

"Romanadvoratrelundar, commander of 97th Gallifreyan fighter squadron. And who are you?" Perhaps petty condescending tone was unnecessary but Romana could not bring herself to care.

In a span of last three hours from her point of view, she had witnessed Daleks penetrating the supposedly impenetrable sky trenches of Arcadia, was knocked out into time vortex, crashed on Earth because life loved the irony of it and woke up from probably very long sleep only to discover Daleks sacking yet another planet. She was tired, bruised and just wanted the whole thing to be over. She did not have time for school level lovers.

"Oi, now's not time to fight." The red head butted in, looking at Rose. "In that parallel world, you said something about me."

"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

Romana looked at Donna again, fishing out her sonic to scan her. "Rose is correct. Timelines are indeed focalizing on Donna. Admittedly a disturbing development which is probably linked to this whole Dalek problem."

"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick." For all the fiery temper bluster, Donna was afraid. Not that Romana would blame her. In fact she would be worried if there had been lack of fear instead.

The Doctor after all, as she had witnessed several times, had the uncanny ability of turning his companions into fearless fighters.

TARDIS's scanner beeped. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard."

"Doctor, you will step forth or die!" Daleks were never the ones to dawdle.

"We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in."

"You told me nothing could get through those doors."

Did he now?

"You've got extrapolator shielding."

At least this time he looked somewhat guilty for not being upfront with his companions. "Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."

"And that is an understatement." Romana started looking for a small part of the station she could teleport to before Daleks picked up the scanning signal.

"What about your dimension jump?"

"It needs another twenty minutes. And anyway, I'm not leaving."

Well, Romana had to smile at the Rose's firm denial of the very idea of leaving the Doctor's side. Oh Doctor. I would have thought one love turned into a devoted warrior would have been your lesson.

"What about your teleport?"

Jack simply shrugged. "Went down with the power loss."

"Right then. All of us together. Yeah. Donna?"

Looking up briefly from the wrist strap, it was easy to spot Donna's unsettled expression. Something was happening inside her mind, Romana could sense that much without actually touching her but the Doctor apparently did not notice.

"Donna?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."

"No, I know."

"Romana what are you doing?"

"Finding a safe spot for teleport Doctor, I have already told you what I plan to do. Right now, me being fresh from Time War is actually an advantage for you."

Stepping right in front of her, he grabbed her shoulders none too gently, as if slight shakes would deter her from her intentions. As if he had ever been able to change her mind when it was set on something. "This station is filled to the brim with Daleks. I just found you."

"And what exactly is your brilliant plan to get out of this and win it, eh Doctor? Are you going to taunt Davros to death?"

"Sometimes there is no winning Romana."

The snort escaped her body fast. "You always play to win, don't bother denying it. I've known you long enough. You know what, fine. But I am not leaving my weapons behind and if we get killed, it's on you."

He actually flinched and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his trousers, "Fair enough."

"Let's go before they decide to blow up the TARDIS with us in it."

They all moved down towards the door but Romana had almost smacked her face in the back of Donna's head because the red head suddenly stopped walking.

"You alright there Donna?" Donna's breathing informed the Time Lady that the red head was anything but fine.

"I keep hearing this noise."

"What noise?"

"Donna, Romana!" Doctor's voice carried over. "You're no safer in there."

Romana rolled her eyes and gently squeezed Donna's shoulder, trying to physically prompt her to move again. And then to the women's utter astonishment, the door slammed shut. Donna immediately got worked up, trying to force the knob to turn and slapping her palms on the door.

"Doctor! What have you done?"

"It wasn't me, I didn't do anything!"

"Oi! Oi, I am not staying behind!"

Romana ignored the shouting in favour of focusing on tiny prick in her mind growing stronger. It was the old girl, trying to re-establish the link they once shared when Romana travelled with the Doctor and often flew her when the Doctor was unable or ceded control once in a while to her. "What are you doing old girl?"

The TARDIS shook, throwing Donna and Romana around as she fell into the power core of the station, the glass roundels bursting from shock; and the old girl all but wailed in Romana's head. Oh but the console is a right mess, she thought to herself when she rushed back up; trying to pull out some backup power to initialize the dematerialization before they got torn about. The room was filling with smoke due to the fire and Donna was struggling to breathe, her panic addled brain probably pushing her body to intake all the oxygen available.

"Donna no!"

Romana's warning came too late for she touched the hand holding container and the regeneration energy stored in it reacted to new addition of DNA material, spurring a biological meta-crisis. That looked exactly Doctor's current regeneration.

"It's you."

"Oh yes."

And perhaps less inhibited in certain ways than the Doctor.

"You're naked."

"Oh yes."

Oh well, her day had been shitty and strange so this might as well happen too.

"Hey, press the button right beside you!" Romana instructed the meta-crisis. "My arms are not that long to reach all the way across."

He pressed the button and they were underway.

*****

With dematerialization done, they found themselves safe for now and the TARDIS stopped her pained telepathic wails. Now however they had to come up with some sort of plan. Just because the Daleks did not notice the TARDIS at the moment due to being preoccupied with whatever absolutely disgusting genocidal plan they had come up with, it didn't mean they wouldn't. The TARDIS was damaged and old therefore detectable. A remark that had the old girl protesting. Loudly.

" _Well I'm sorry but those are the facts."_  Romana looked at the still naked and grinning meta-crisis. "I honestly don't mind the offered view but get dressed. We sort of have a Dalek pest problem to deal with."

"Right wardrobe. Going."

"What about you Donna? You alright now?"

Donna nodded slowly, more than likely trying to take the whole experience in. "I think so. What just happened?"

"That noise you told me about short few minutes ago. It wouldn't have been a heartbeat, now would it?"

"Yeah it was."

Romana nodded, scanning Donna with the sonic. Imbued with regeneration energy but dormant. Good. What she absolutely did not need to happen right now was Donna's brain setting itself on fire. "Instantaneous biological meta-crisis. I've read about those while I was at the academy but I had never thought to witness such a thing. It's as though the Doctor lives to prove me wrong."

"Maybe he does, you never know." The meta-crisis returned, dressed in a blue suit and red converse shoes. "We need to keep quiet, like on submarine when you can't even drop a spanner. Don't drop a spanner. I like blue, what do you think?"

Sandshoes. Stars above and ancients of Gallifrey, he was wearing sandshoes. Though, despite the added human DNA, he still talked like the Doctor, mile a minute with no sign of a pause or an off switch.

"You are bonkers!" Donna was not impressed at all it seemed.

"Why what's wrong with blue?"

"Is that what Time Lords do? Lop a bit off, grow another one. You're like worms."

It could not be helped, Romana actually laughed. Time Lords being like worms. She had never heard that comparison before.

"No, no, no, no, no. I'm unique."

"He's right. Because of your added DNA, he's neither the Doctor nor you. He's his own person. It just so happens that he has Doctor's current face. Anyway you can pick your name later, for now I'll call you Doctor because frankly we don't have time for this. Give me a hand at fixing this damage so we can go back and deal with the Dalek problem. Or at the very least pick up everyone if the Doctor sorts the Dalek problem before us."

"What about me?"

"Sit down and catch your breath." Donna gave her incredulous look but Romana was not deterred from her instruction. "I mean it Donna. I don't care whether he echoed through the timelines back onto you, what you did was dangerous and could have easily killed you. Sit down, this instant and rest."

"But why did he echo or whatever on me?"

"'Cause you're special." The meta-crisis remarked off-handedly, fixing a new roundel bulb into the wall.

"I keep telling you I'm not."

"No but you are. Oh. You really don't believe that, do you? I can see, Donna, what you're thinking. All that attitude, all that lip, because all this time you think you're not worth it.

"Stop it."

"Shouting at the world because no one's listening. Well, why should they?"

Romana sighed. "Doctor, you're being tactless again."

"But look at what you did. No, it's more than that. It's like we were always heading for this. You came to the TARDIS. And you found me again. Your granddad. Your car. Donna, your car. You parked your car right where the TARDIS was going land. That's not coincidence at all! We've been blind. Something's been drawing us together for such a long time."

"But you're talking like destiny. There's no such thing. Is there?"

"Actually Donna, there is such a thing called pre-destination paradox. This feels like one though it's more likely someone is doing some serious timeline manipulation." Romana finished her part of repairs and climbed down the ladder, walking back to the console to initiate full scan of the station.

"It's still not finished. It's like the pattern's not complete. The strands are still drawing together. But heading for what?"

"Probably the destruction of Daleks and Davros himself. Perhaps this time death actually will stick with him."

The meta-crisis looked at her with curiosity. "You have a plan?"

"Yes. It involves my guns, sonic screwdriver, several flash grenades and this." She lifted a small silver coloured capsule clipped on the chain she was wearing beneath her uniform.

"What is it?"

"Now Donna, that-" The TARDIS suddenly shook.

"Romana look at this." The meta-crisis pointed to the screen that was putting up sensor data which showed massive surge of z-neutrino energy.

"Single string z-neutrinos compressed. No way."

From strictly scientific point of view, the sheer accomplishment of what they were witnessing was beyond fascinating. But it was unbelievably horrifying and revolting. For all the centuries of war, Romana found it hard to keep what little fluid she had in her stomach and not throw up.

"After everything, I had believed that Davros had run out of ways for me to rediscover disgust towards him and the Daleks. I was wrong."

"What is it, what are they doing? Doctor? Romana?"

"To put it simply Donna, they had produced means to conduct universal genocide so they could be the only living beings in it. That had always been their desire. What happened right now,was just testing if I were to guess and they are getting ready for the real deal."

"So what do we do?"

"What I said not a minute ago. We show up and I start shooting with you well out of the way. But let's first see where the Doctor is."

"You are forgetting the part where twenty seven planets are in a completely wrong part of space and time." The meta-crisis pointed out concerned.

"That will be your job once we get on board. I'll deal with Daleks and you are going to send the planets back. There has to be magnetron control panel somewhere." Romana narrowed her eyes. "Ah, there we go. Two hearts, that's the Doctor. Human bio-signs and a Kaled one as well; all in the same place. Not too many Daleks, which is just better news for me. Where's Davros, there should be magnetron control as well. Now then, I need some flash grenades. You wouldn't happen to have some old girl, eh?"

The lights in the console room shimmered and new doors appeared to Romana's left. "Thanks darling."

"What's in there? How did you do that?"

"Something akin to an arsenal Donna. And the old girl has always liked me enough to indulge most of my requests. Now, let's get going. I am in a torn uniform, hungry, pissed off and I'd like to do the killing part before my pain medication wears off."

"You know, you're rather violent."

Romana rolled her eyes as she pulled down the lever, sending the TARDIS once again towards the Crucible and their chose destination, "Yes, that was kind of a point of my regeneration."

Setting rather short detonation time delay and taking the safety caps off the grenades, she moved towards the entrance. "Aren't you glad this time that the doors open from the inside? Be a good girl and open them the moment you materialize." She whispered to the TARDIS and looked over her shoulder. "You two stay right there and don't come out until I tell you."

There was a customary thud as TARDIS materialized before old girl flung her doors open for Romana to create her little controlled chaos. The flesh grenades went off, impairing the eyesight of everyone in the room which gave Romana opportunity to come out with guns at ready and shoot every Dalek present.

She should feel bad. Part of her in fact did feel bad at the thrill coursing through her and satisfaction of hearing dying screams of Daleks. But this regeneration was born to do this. To be ruthless leader of her people in their eleventh hour. To kill. To annihilate every single Dalek in her path. Not all of her purposes were fulfilled but there was no time for crying over spilt milk as humans said.

Squeezing the trigger one last time, the Dalek screamed when the energy bolt pierced its eyestalk and killed it. Silence descended in the room for all of a second before Davros pointed his gauntlet and fired at Donna and meta-crisis who of course didn't listen and came out the moment the shooting stopped. The gun in her right hand found a new target.

"Do that again and I'll shoot your hand off. Before moving on to other parts." Romana leaned down to his eye level. "I am quite willing to indulge in several ideas I have floating in my mind when it comes to you. None of them are particularly nice."

"Romana."

"Yes Doctor?"

"Don't."

"No." She wagged her finger in denying motion. "I went with your whatever and it almost got me cooked in z-neutrino core. Now, we do this my way."

She looked at the meta-crisis. "Check Donna, release them from the holding cells and send the planets back to their original space-time coordinates. Magnetron is right there."

The sonic came to life, making a show of electrical sparks when she pointed it to one of the walls that held important circuits. "That should take care of relays for now and keep Daleks out of this place for next three minutes. That's how long you have to send the planets back. Oh and handsome catch." She threw one of her guns at Jack. "Please keep an eye on Davros. I need to pay attention to my work."

"What are you doing?"

Of course Doctor would come over to meddle the instant he was free.

"Dealing with Dalek pest problem once and for all. Go be useful over there and check on your companion. Would be better use of short time we have here."

"Think this through."

"I have. Thoroughly. Get going lover."

He stiffened a bit at given address before walking away from her with pointlessly disappointed look in his eyes. Just what happened that this regeneration of his had ridiculously too much of hypocritical morality he waved around like a flag? Romana shook her head and focused on opening a console to do some quick cross wiring before using the capsule.

She was vaguely aware of the conversation in the background, something about 'three Doctors' and 'DoctorDonna' and by the stars that was going to end in tears.

"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?"

If she didn't know any better, Romana would have sworn up and down that she heard fear in Davros's voice.

"Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor."

"You betrayed the Daleks."

"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!"

Huh. An insane driven Dalek with apparent morals. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. Oh she'd kill for a bath and some silence. Finally, the wires were done and without much hesitation, Romana unscrewed the capsule's top before sticking it in a small port above the right looking mess of crossed wires.

"The prophecy must complete. I have seen the end of everything Dalek; you must make it happen War Queen."

Now that was a title she had never expected to hear from anyone, especially not a Dalek.

"You know me then?"

"I have seen you stand in fire at the end of all things War Queen."

Just then the station started to shake; Daleks could be heard screaming and exploding as the banging on the doors she blocked suddenly stopped.

"What did you do?!" The Doctor stared at her horrified.

"Virus. Infects them through the pathweb. Just a little something I cooked on the side but never thought I would actually use. We should get going."

He looked ready to actually yell at her but another close explosion that had half of the room on fire forced him to direct everyone into the TARDIS instead. Romana looked at screaming Davros.

"This time may death actually stick to you. Burn like Gallifrey did, you absolute demon."

The Doctor had waited by the doors and she passed by him without as much as a look. It was time for the nightmare that was Time War to finally end. "I'll have my gun back, Jack."

The immortal man handed her the gun carefully, looking at her with awed surprise like everyone else. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen so many people in any TARDIS. It was nice even if the circumstances leading to this were anything but good or pretty.

The jolt of taking off caused her to feel all the bruises, external and internal, as it seemed the pain medication was wearing off. She weakly yanked on the blue sleeve to get meta-crisis's attention. "Come, help me to the medical bay."

"Romana?"

She looked over her shoulder at the Doctor who clearly wanted to know what was happening, "Honestly, what part of my appearance tells you I am in perfect condition lover? I need more than drugs to help with the pain. I assume you still know how to fly the TARDIS out of the rift so we'll leave you to it."

Without waiting for the reply Romana started walking again. Soon enough she would be able to walk without feeling like her insides were going to slide out of her in some way.

*****

"You'll have to pick yourself a name, you know." Romana remarked, calmly lying on the biobed as the meta-crisis worked with tissue regenerator to heal up her body. Or at the very least, to help it along. She had a feeling she would be sleeping for several days after this whole ordeal.

"Yeah I'll have to. The Doctor doesn't exactly suit me."

"No. Though I'm sure you'll figure it out. What are your plans now? I doubt he'll want you along for a ride."

The meta-crisis shook his head, "No, he most certainly won't. I could teach and protect the Earth. I've done it before. And Earth now feels like, like-"

"Like home. You can say it. You are also part human and I think that is brilliant that you feel that way."

He got serious and sad suddenly. "He'll have to erase Donna's memories, won't he? I know what is happening right now in the console room."

"Yes. Her brain can't handle the additional Time Lord knowledge. Had Davros not hit her with that discharge, she would have been fine. For a while, until she got zapped by something else. I'd look at her but I doubt the Doctor would let me anywhere near her. Not now. This regeneration of his is most confusing."

"To you. He makes perfect sense to himself."

Of course he does. Why did she choose the Doctor over all other Time Lords? It is not like she lacked suitors. There were better options. But no. She, a very proper Time Lady, had to fall for a renegade. She was sure there was a punch line somewhere.

"We done?"

"Yup." The meta-crisis confirmed, setting away the regenerator. "Though you should sleep it off. Light healing coma will do you wonders."

"I will. Once all this is sorted out." Romana climbed out of the bed. "I'm going to check on him and the situation alright?"

"Sure."

When Romana walked into now empty console room, it was just in time to see him enter the TARDIS soaking wet and looking like someone just killed all his hopes.

"You look like a drowned rat. It's not the end of the universe, lover. You really should have let me take a look at Donna. Stars only know why you feel the need to dissect yourself in this manner."

"Don't."

"Don't what? Call you lover? Don't point out the obvious? What?"

"Just stop."

"No, I shan't." Her fingers played with a strand of her hair. "You do not get to stand there and look like you are at the end of your rope. And what is it with that judgement in your eyes?"

"You know what you did."

"Apparently finished what you started."

And finally there was some physical reaction. He was standing before her in a second, eyes alight with rage and pain, fists tightly squeezed.

"Genocide is not the answer!'"

The laughter that escaped her lips was anything but warm and full, "O-ho! Two regenerations away from war and you think you can lord moral lessons over me! You overestimate yourself, my lord! Care to be reminded of what you did that has us standing here as last lights of the mighty Gallifrey?"

"There was no other choice then. This was different."

"Different how? What do you think you could have done? Have Davros as your permanent tea guest?"

"There was no need for annihilation." He bowed his head. "The more time passes, the heavier knowledge of your actions are. It's not necessary to add more death to already indeterminate number."

Romana let a tired sigh slip past her lips, "Look at you. Look at us. Husband and wife in almost all the ways that matter but unable to hold each other's gaze. Both broken to the core. You cannot even bring yourself to touch me."

As if driven to prove her wrong, his brown eyes stared at her for full two minutes with time rotor working in the background being the only source of sound in the room. To her surprise, he traced his index finger down her jaw line, stepped away from her and reached for the flight handle.

"What are you doing?"

"Setting TARDIS down in the park few minutes after the others left." The unspoken demand for her to leave him to suffer on his own like a walking tragedy he is hung in the air between them.

Romana sighed. "Perhaps it is for the best. And I do have a ship to find and fix."

She gently tapped the console, "I assume my room is still around dear?"

The old girl hummed mournfully in her mind. "It won't be forever. Now, I need to get some things I left last time I was here."

"What's going on?" The meta-crisis asked, coming down the hall to her right.

"Uh, to put it bluntly he's kicking me out. He really has the whole 'woe is me so I shall suffer alone' down to a T. I'm getting some of my things from my old room before I leave." Romana replied, not slowing down her pace.

"Right." He scratched a spot behind his ear. "Did he land already?"

"Yeah. Uh somewhere on Earth, probably somewhere on British Isles. Didn't actually ask."

"Good, I'll wait for you outside."

Romana shook her head. "You don't have to. You're your own person, you do you."

"I may not be him exactly but that doesn't erase the fact I still know you. And I could use a friend. So do you."

He was right. Doctor's former companions would be more than adequate company but they were human and had their own lives to live without her meddling in. "Fine, I won't be long."

"Good."

When she returned with one sling bag resting on her shoulder, wearing fresh clothes that replaced the tattered flight uniform, she found the Doctor staring at the ceiling.

"If I step out there and discover you put me in some completely different place, I will make you regret it."

"I checked three times. It's been ten minutes since I dropped them off. He's also waiting, sitting on a bench."

"Good." She looked over her shoulder when she opened the main door. "Find someone even for a short while. You fare poorly when you're alone." Not giving him time to reply, she stepped out into sunlit Morgan Jones Park.

One foot in front of the other. That's was always the simplest way to start. And so she did.


	3. Chapter 3

Humans were such a confusing assortment of sentient beings. One moment they behaved like bloodthirsty, narrow minded savages and the next they were deeply compassionate and understanding and all for unity. Fearful and in denial about moving forward to new ideas from already safe, known ones yet scholarly inclined, always willing to be daring and explore. Romana wondered if this contradictory behaviour and deep potential to be far better than their own race ever was what kept drawing the Doctor to this planet in various points in time over and over again. Sometimes, in the little corner of her mind, she speculated if he came to consider Earth as a home planet in some way instead of Gallifrey.

While she was still oh so very young, attending the Academy, one could always hear someone whispering all sorts of outrageous things about the Doctor. The renegade Time Lord, rumbling around the space-time continuum, picking up various mortals as companions and meddling into affairs of others whenever and wherever. There had also been a rumour about him being a hybrid child of his Time Lord father and his secret human lover instead of his wife. Her reactions to it were always somewhere between scoffing and curiosity. Perhaps there was some truth in the rumour, a fault resting in his human part causing him to run from Gallifrey repeatedly.

Even centuries after they had met and gotten to know each other, she still wondered. Not about his parentage, she knew there were no human genes in that Time Lord whatsoever, but if he had come to definitively prefer Earth to Gallifrey. A beep from her sonic brought Romana out of her thoughts back to the reality and she moved to calibrate the last probe she planted into the somewhat damp ground along the other seven.

It had barely been two months since the Daleks ‘stole’ the Earth and invaded it but the human race bounced back remarkably fast. The dead had been buried, destroyed infrastructure was being rebuilt and adjustments to alien awareness had been made. This was not their first alien invasion, not even by long shot. In fact, they had Cybermen invasion not three years ago and Sycorax scaring everyone year before that. And yet...the denial of some people was just amazing. Internet hoaxes, spoiled water supplies and similar flimsy explanations were flung around like candy. It was amazing.

With the frequency on the last probe set, Romana activated the beta/gamma wave field that would boost the ship’s perception filter in order to avoid attention and detection while it was parked on the ground, even if it was in the middle of nowhere. The restoration program had repaired almost all the damage the ship had suffered but some components were beyond repair and therefore needed to be replaced. Romana had discovered that she would be able to create most of them from materials that could be found on Earth though it would cost her. That was not much of a problem though.

For all the complexities humans possessed, they rather liked shiny coloured rocks. So before she would go shopping, she made sure to acquire some gemstones humans found very impressive and therefore expensive to convert into money she spread into several bank accounts. Romana had no desire to attract the attention of UNIT or some other alien focused organization. Especially now after the Daleks and planetary havoc they caused.

Back inside her ship, she was in the middle of considering options for obtaining a smaller amount of iridium and rhenium when her phone rang. This surprised her. Only one person had her phone number and they talked just yesterday. Though Romana was not too keen on having it, she also knew that she could not very well walk amongst humans and talk into her wrist. Smartwatches were not a thing yet. Upon retrieving the phone from the charging socket, she saw the screen showing her an unknown number. Puzzling.

“Computer, trace this number and identify the caller.”

“Processing. Location: 51°27'52.4"N 3°09'51.6"W, Cardiff, Road Dahl Plaza, Torchwood Three Hub. Caller identity: Jack Harkness, officer in charge.”

“Well now.” She pressed ‘accept’. “Good morning handsome. What can this Time Lady do for you?”

Judging by momentary silence, he was not expecting this kind of greeting. “Uh, good morning. How do you feel about visiting Cardiff?”

“Why?”

“Well, there is a nest of aggravated grours that needs handling. Arthur,” Jack paused to chuckle at the name a bit. “Had suggested to call you. Apparently you dealt with them before.”

“Ah...you need an exterminator.” The irony of the word was not lost on either of them.

“Yeah.” She heard him exhale slowly. “So can you do it?”

“If they’re aggravated, that means they have also taken or killed someone. When they’re distressed, they aren’t as picky about their food source.”

“Yeah, some kids were messing around an old warehouse. One is dead, the other missing.”

Romana briefly closed her eyes. Despite many of her personality traits that would easily earn her a label of ‘stone cold killer’, hearing about dead children always made her flinch and hearts ache.

“I’ll come over right away. Just give me a couple of minutes to get my things.”

“Where are you?”

“On my ship but I have a transmat. Or did you forget my entrance so easily handsome?”

“Hmmm, as if. We’ll be waiting.”

“Understood.”

She sighed as the line went dead and shoved the phone in the pocket of her jacket. That temporal rift sure did spit out everything and anything. Perhaps one day it will spit out a spaceship. She doubted the Welsh would be particularly panicked by that though. Romana grabbed her holstered guns, the onboard med kit in case she found the child still alive and activated the transmat.

In a blink, she found herself standing on one of the balconies in Torchwood hub with its three resident employees staring at her with surprise. “What? I said I’d be over right away.”

“Well em, we don’t get visitors that teleport in.” Gwen remarked with a small smile.

Romana smiled, “Develop a transmat inhibitor and I’ll knock on Ianto’s door instead.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“How did you get Arthur to give you my number? For that matter, how did you even know I am still on Earth?”

Jack shrugged, tracking her every movement down the stairs. He was being cautious with her still. All three of them were. She really needed to find out what caused him to be so alert about Time Lords who are not the Doctor.

“I didn’t go back to the Hub straight away. Martha, Mickey and I needed a drink or two. Saw you walking past the bar with Arthur before you both teleported somewhere.”

“Ah. Well then, point me to the nest location. I should like to return to my own interests.”

“And what would those be?”

“Repairing my ship. I did have to extract it from the bottom of the ocean Ianto.”

“And where is your ship?”

Romana smiled, following Ianto to the nearest computer terminal to be shown information. “Now, now, Gwen Cooper, a lady needs to have some secrets.”

“Right.” Gwen smiled. “But can you give us a peek?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Okay then. This is where the body of eight year old Evan Driscoll was found. It’s an industrial warehouse unit.” Ianto pointed to the screen.

“Undoubtedly, it was used at some point to store large quantities of coal. Cardiff had been for some time the most important coal port in the world before World War I.”

“How is that important?”

“Grours feed on ostian, a sponge like rock that naturally occurs in great quantities on their homeworld Kamaivis. It is chemically similar to coal. They’re not usually aggressive. In fact they’re quite down the food chain. But the displacement from natural habitat would make them so.” Romana reached for her guns and started adjusting their settings. “When the rift spat them out, they must have smelt the carbon in the air and it led them to the warehouse. The boys unfortunately picked the wrong playground, I’m afraid.”

Ianto and Gwen frowned, concern obvious on their faces, “And what about Cai Rees?”

“I simply don’t know Gwen. They are in unknown environment so their behaviour is anything but normal. I will of course do my best to retrieve the boy, dead or alive. But you might prepare yourself for the possibility that I just might fight torn clothes instead.”

“Oh God.”

“Yeah. If we had time, I’d try to come up with a way to possibly return the nest to their homeworld. But we don’t. So I’ll use transmat to get over there and deal with the situation. I’ll contact you when I am done.”

“Don’t you need back up?”

Romana was quite certainly the look in her eyes got quite cold, because Jack stiffened up like a backboard when she looked at them while Gwen chewed on her lower lip and Ianto shoved his hand in his trouser’s pockets. She would need to work on that.

“No. I am...better at killing when I don’t have to watch out for the safety of my backup.” Not wanting further discussion on the subject, she quickly activated the transmat. She had absolutely no desire to divulge information on how she discovered that.

*****

The warehouse was dark, dusty and in a rather sorry crumbling state. She had lost count on how many times she had seen such buildings and entered them either seeking temporary shelter or searching for something or someone. Why human children found such dark places fun was not rather clear on her. But she would not lie and say abandoned buildings lacked in appeal of mystery that attracted various races to explore them.

Distant hissing like noises coming from a hole in the floor in the far corner to her left prompted her to take out her guns and approach it on rather slow pace. Quick scan of the sonic informed her of a faint human life sign 170 feet away from her current position but underground and eleven grour life signs as obstacles. Romana took a deep breath in, momentarily focused on shutting all potential fears and doubts that might interfere with her ability to get the job done and jumped down the hole.

Her tongue smacked her lips involuntarily at the very taste of human blood and grour metabolic enzymes in the air. It was anything but appealing but it also revealed to her that the boys were not the first ones to have been made unfortunate victims of the grours. Judging by the taste and smell of blood, at least five more humans were made grour meal. She snapped out of her observations when loud hisses bounced off the tunnel walls.

The guns came to life, set to pulsing disintegration. Her fingers curled around the triggers. And she started firing. She was certain that if anyone walked past the warehouse, they would hear nothing but high pitched screeches and some form of energy weapon going off. The pulsing disintegration setting was quite loud after all, even to Romana’s ears.

It took her fifteen minutes to deal with the nest and reach the boy. He was in a bad shape and hanging onto life by a thread. She needed to act fast. Deciding to do clean up later because the last thing everyone needed is some humans experimenting with carcasses of grours, she slowly picked up the boy and transmatted back to the Hub. Shock of course was prevalent due to Romana and the boy looking like a right mess.

“Jack, call Martha Jones and tell her I will come for her, I need assistance with the boy. Where is your medical bay?”

“This way!” Ianto immediately set the pace. “It’s more autopsy bay but it serves for medical purposes as well.”

“I don’t care what you call it; it has medical supplies and equipment, no?”

“Yes.”

With best gentility possible, Romana lowered the unconscious boy on the cold metal table. “Blood, he will need a lot of blood. Wounds will need cleaning and closing.”

Jack appeared in the bay, cell phone still in his hand, “Martha says she’s waiting for you.”

“Where specifically?”

“Royal Hope hospital, east wing, level nine. By the nurses’ station.”

“Right.” Romana stepped away. “Be back in a flash.”

And she was, with little bit ruffled looking Martha Jones who was still in her doctor’s coat. Any confusion disappeared at the sight of the boy. “Oh dear God! What happened?”

“Alien animals wanted to make a meal out of him. Fortunately they have not relieved him of anything vital for living.” Romana replied, tossed aside her leather jacket and scanned him with the sonic.

“How is he still alive? These cuts are deep and I can feel several broken bones.” Martha was carefully examining her unexpected patient.

“He was not as meaty as other people.”

“Other people?” Gwen asked horrified.

“By the smell of blood, I’d say grours made five other humans their meals. Perhaps more. I will return to investigate later and clean up the mess. Now,” She pointed her sonic to nearby monitor that came to life with boy’s bio data. “His blood type is A+, so get that if you have it. I’ll start working on the bones, Martha if you could please clean his wounds. The less of grour slime he has on his wounds, the smaller chances are that the metabolic enzymes in the slime will fight against the medicine I will give him.”

“What about his cuts? Or are those bite marks?”

“Claw marks to be more precise, Ianto but if I don’t set his bones back together first and close the cuts instead; the bones will more than likely pierce the tissue and blood vessels on the inside, maybe even cause damage to some of his organs. He doesn’t need massive internal bleeds as well.”

“We only have three bags of A+.” Gwen announced as she sifted through the refrigerator.

“That will be enough, bring it over here please.” Martha acknowledged, motioning with her gloved hand to the empty metal trolley beside the table.

“Do you know how to introduce IV line?”

“Yes.”

Romana nodded, “Then please do so in his right arm, I fixed his broken forearm.”

“Already?”

“Bone fuser works quickly. I wouldn’t mind having some nanogenes though. They would do most of our work for us and faster.”

“That looks neat nevertheless.” Jack remarked from his spot on the stairs, overlooking the small area where they all worked.

“All the same, we both know humanity will get to those technological developments at some point in the future, handsome.”

Even though she was currently mending the boy’s ribcage, Romana still spotted the small frown that appeared on Ianto’s face after she called Jack ‘handsome’ with distant affection. Ah, 21st century humans. Most of them still so very singular. Still, she could and would respect that.

“You don’t like me calling your boyfriend ‘handsome’, do you?”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it isn’t. I’m close to a thousand years in age, I would like to think I am well versed in body language to know when people are lying. I’ll stop.” She moved the bone fuser to the left femur, the last bone that was broken. “Though word to the wise Ianto Jones, when this happens you have to tell people to stop or Jack should. People aren’t mind readers or centuries old aliens that have seen jealousy enough times to recognize it.”

Ianto nodded curtly, “Understood.”

“Alright. I cleaned up all his wounds, you fixed his bones and he’s getting blood.” Martha observed. “Now, all we need is to close these cuts and give him something to combat these enzymes in his system. And he needs fluids.”

“Blood first. Giving him fluids won’t mean a thing if there is next to nothing in his veins to carry the fluids around.”

“True.”

“Here.” Romana handed Martha a small black device resembling barcode scanner. “Tissue regenerator. Just move it over the cuts slowly.”

“That looks very yellow.” Romana gave the ampoule with neon yellow liquid a little shake.

“It will behave similarly to enzyme inhibitor. Now I just have to adjust the dosage and dilute it a bit. Much too viscous for human bloodstream.”

Much too viscous was an understatement. Sticking the entirety of undiluted agevorin into the boy’s bloodstream would be akin to injecting him with peanut butter. Guaranteed death. Romana did a quick calculation in her head on how much the boy could take based on human blood viscosity, his weight and current blood volume; and prepared the diluted mix for the hypo-syringe.

“His vitals are really low but at least they are not dropping any further.”

Romana pressed the hypo-syringe to the boy’s neck, “And this should help his vitals go up.”

Five of them stood in the autopsy/medical bay for full two minutes in absolute silence, eyes glued to the monitors when finally the heart rate started to rise very slowly.

“Alright. If you agree, we will give him fluids after second blood unit drains into him.”

Martha nodded, “Yeah, that would be best considering everything. Nice work.”

“You as well doctor Jones.”

Jack clapped his hands, smile on his lips. “Right then, with crisis averted, we could all use something decent to eat. Or do you have to go right back Martha?”

“No, I told my supervisor that I have personal emergency, though I probably should have taken my coat off before coming here. They’ll be expecting me at work tomorrow.”

“Great. And you Romana?”

Romana nodded, “I could use something to eat. I was planning on doing some shopping and eating out when you called anyway.”

“A Time Lady shopping?”

“Not that kind of shopping Jack. I need some raw materials, like iridium and rhenium to built some components that need to be replaced in the ship. Though I could obtain finished products of similar quality three galaxies away, I rather not test some of the still sensitive systems. Besides, I like working.”

“Fair enough. Any preferences ladies?”

“I could go for some pizza, I haven’t had some in a while.” Martha replied.

“I’m fine with whatever you order so long it doesn’t have pineapple on or in it. This body doesn’t like the taste of it at all.”

“Alright then. Some pizza surprises coming up.”

With Gwen and Ianto walking off, probably to write some reports or probably to come up with an explanation they are going to give boy’s parents and Martha checking boy’s vitals again; Romana decided to tidy up and put away her med kit. Last thing she needed was Gallifreyan medical devices and tools floating around Cardiff.

“You coming up?”

“In a moment, just need to lock this.”

“Alright.”

Romana watched Martha climb the stairs and disappear from her view. The Doctor has always had a knack to find most interesting people to interact and be friends with. Maybe her stay on Earth would be more than just fixing her ship to fly away.

*****

“So I was wondering. I get why Arthur wanted to stay on Earth but I kind of figured you’d be hopping around time and space with Doc.”

Romana slowly chewed her bite of pizza, her eyes going over her company. All four of them had the same question on their faces. Why was she here and not with the Doctor? She knew the question would inevitably be asked, she just didn’t know if she should be honest or not but in the end decided to just say it as is. Lying and avoidance of direct answer was more Doctor’s forte.

“We have quite severe differences in personalities. Basically I got kicked out. Though to be honest, had I stayed, I would have removed myself from the TARDIS anyway. The alternative would be constant fights and months long silent treatments.” She reached for the Coke bottle. “Right now it’s best that we are apart.”

"Wait, he just discovered he's not alone in the universe and he simply kicked you out over personalities clashing?"

Romana shrugged, with honest lack of concern she was well aware they noticed. "Yes. It is not surprising. One does not like to look in the mirror and see past reflection staring back at them. The war...he and I. Well, we were perfect pair of soldiers. Desperate to end the war and outstanding at killing." Her eyes studied the way Martha twitched in her seat next to Jack and the immortal man himself frowning deeply.

"I see this troubles you, the thought of the Doctor killing without mercy. But is in fact truth he cannot escape from. Neither of us can. We were perfect killers. Knew just how much explosive was needed to blow up a city. Which part of the energy grid to overload and fry Dalek's breeding pods. Or maybe he was the perfect soldier and I the perfect officer. Not that it mattered, that I had voluntarily regenerated into ruthless, almost soulless killer with mind for strategy. In the end, they dug up Rassilon and whole thing went to shit."

“I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand what you are talking about? What war?”

Romana looked at equally confused and interested Gwen and Ianto, “The Last Great Time War fought between the Time Lord of Gallifrey and Daleks of Skaro. Raging for centuries across time and space, taking billions of lives and dozens of worlds as collateral damage. Some would say the ending of the universe as we knew it. Rather dramatic but not entirely wrong assessment.”

“It does sound rather apocalyptic.”

“In some ways it was. Of the Daleks, pockets of them survived to wreck havoc wherever they go. They truly are cosmic cockroaches. Of Time Lords, as far as I am aware at present moment, just the Doctor and I remain.”

“And instead of being together, you are here and he is off gallivanting the universe? That doesn’t make much sense.” Ianto remarked, shaking his head.

“Very little makes sense about Time Lords. I-” A beep from the nearby computer cut her off, informing them that it was time to replace their patient’s fluids bag and check his vitals.

Romana got up, grateful for the interruption of the conversation. “Lunch time over kids.”

“So how’s he doing?” Jack asked, having followed right after her to the bay.

“Treatment he was given is working. I estimate he will be good to go back to his parents in about thirty six hours.”

“He was lucky you were still on Earth.”

She tilted her head a bit when she looked up from the monitor, “I’m sure you would have managed. From what I read about Torchwood Three, you are very far from inept.”

“Thank you. My point still stands. We don’t actually have alien medicine and fully understood medical devices at hand.”

“Fair enough. I sense you have something to ask of me.”

He smiled. “Ianto wants you to write a report.”

“Oh? Handling the problem wasn’t enough so I must fill out the paperwork as well?”

“It’s kind of a procedure. And we could really use some proper knowledge on the matter should it ever happen again that rift spits out some more grours.”

“Alright.” Romana agreed, moving up the stairs again. “But I’ll do this once. And you will be the ones to handle the whole cover up thing. I don’t do weepy parents.”

Jack snorted. “Well now you actually sound  like him.”

“I am not sure whether that’s a compliment or not. Well Ianto, I assume you have some report forms I need to fill out.”

The Welshman practically materialized a small paper stack in his hands out of thin air. “Here you go lady Romana.”

“Romana will do just fine, no titles necessary. Anything else I can do for you? Dress a drag and do the hula?”

“If you’re willing to that, I am sure I would enjoy every moment of it.”

Laughter bubbled up and escaped her fast.

“Why Ianto Jones, you are an interesting human being. And while I might not do that, maybe Jack could indulge you in that.” She looked over her shoulder to where Jack was standing, looking back at them with amusement. “I’m sure he’d look smashing.”

“I’m sure he would.” Ianto agreed before walking off with thoughtful look in his eyes. “Oh and be sure to be as precise as possible with the report. Makes for good archiving material.”

Romana shook her head before taking a seat at a nearby empty desk and reached for the pen. The Time Lady of Gallifrey doing human paperwork. Oh well, she had done much stranger things in her long life.

"Can I ask you something?" Romana looked up from her paperwork, still not quite believing she was pretty much ordered into doing it, "You already have, Martha. But yes, ask. I'll answer if I can."

"The scars on your arms. They look deep. How did you get them?"

"Have you ever watched that movie trilogy Star Wars?"

"Yes?"

"Then you have seen that big creature on Hoth, if memory serves me well, it's called a wampa."

Martha's eyes widened, "Seriously?"

 "The astraram look very similar to that made up creature. And their claws are both big and venomous. Fortunately I got away in time to give myself antivenin."

"Thing is though," Martha leaned on the wall. "You're clearly suffering and don't like this version of you. How come you don't just regenerate? Since you already did that to become who you are now."

Romana had to smile. It was a sincere, warm smile, one that rarely came to her ever since she regenerated. To be this hopeful in face of absolute reality of life. To be so young again.

"I do detest what I am Martha. There are days when I wake up in the cabin on that ship of mine, look in the mirror and want to break it into thousand pieces. I want to break every reflective surface just so I don't see myself." Tired sigh slipped past her lips, "My dreams are fire, blood, death and screams. Daleks forever more repeating 'exterminate'. The Doctor begging me to leave everything behind and save myself from the atrocities of the universe we are living in.” Putting final dot on the line, she gathered the papers back into a neat stack and set aside the pen she used.

“But in the end, I am still a soldier, Martha. And every soldier wants to die knowing they had done something right, something positive with their bloodshed. That they chipped their soul away fraction by fraction and spared someone else’s soul of the same fate. I am yet to discover that I have done so. Perhaps I never will and this body will wear itself out to age before I regenerate. Or perhaps I will save someone who will simply smile at me and I will know that I can go. I guess we can do nothing but wait and see which comes first."

Judging by the surprised though thoughtful look on Martha’s face, she had not expected such a particular answer to her question. Probably too used to Doctor dodging such questions like live gunfire.

“You’re something different, you know.”

Romana shrugged. “Well it wouldn’t be interesting if I were just like him, no?”

“I guess. Could you teleport me back home? It’s nice here but I do have a job back in London and Cai is going to completely recover.”

“Of course I can. Let me just give this to Jack and we can go.”

Though the sewer chic of the Hub was still very much not her thing, she could hardly deny the practical layout of it. As such, Jack’s office did not require a lot of steps to reach. The man himself also seemed to be writing his report.

“Here is your report, I will update your database when I return Martha ho-” Romana trailed off when she spotted the most unlikely thing on Jack’s desk.

There, right under the desk lamp and on a circular laboratory tripod rested a TARDIS coral.


	4. Chapter 4

The Christmas dinner put him in solemnly good spirits, and for the first time in years he was considering in seeing Romana. It had been four years for him since he had left her on Earth and if he allowed the rare moment of honesty to himself; he missed her. For so long he’s been alone, the silence in his mind ever pressing its fingers into the raw wound that reminded him why that was so. But now she was present in the universe again, no longer hidden from him and very much absent from TARDIS.

The old girl had been protesting from the very moment Romana walked out about his decision and behaviour that followed afterwards. She had landed several times in the general area he concluded Romana had been living on Earth but he had refused to go out. Eventually she had given up and took him to random places, each just as much trouble as the previous one.

Maybe it was time to try to familiarise themselves with each other again. He could hear, very quietly, his eighth self laughing at him. There was nothing new for him to familiarise with when it came to Romana. She was still the same one that passed him the key from her cold fingers with a searing kiss before rushing off to her star fighter again. The warrior with ice in her hearts and ruthlessness in her eyes. Only her hair had looked whiter than it did at the moment they parted for good, or so they believed. 

“Alright then. Going to see Romana it is.”

Like an overexcited puppy, the old girl did not wait for him to put in approximate coordinates or push down the lever but launched herself into the vortex with the speed that slightly worried him since he barely had time to get a grip on the console before she landed with a rather loud thud. By the way the lights shimmered and the noises she made, the TARDIS obviously was more than eager to host a Time Lady she had become so familiar with.

“Bit of a warning next time. Could have knocked my head into something.” The responding noise sounded like a snort. “Well then, let’s see where and when we are; and if Romanadvoratrelundar will knock me out for taking too long.”

Despite it being years for him, judging by temporal coordinates, the TARDIS was keen on finding Romana as close as possible from the moment he left. Even though they landed in August 2009, there was still a possibility that it had also been a long time for Romana as well. If his memory served him well that star fighter she piloted and crashed, was equipped with temporal module. It could have been centuries for her. She may have even regenerated. The old girl snapped him out of his darkening thoughts by a rather rude telepathic nudge.

“I’m going, I’m going.” The Doctor scratched the back of his head, grabbed his coat and walked out.

He did not fancy being nagged by his own ship. Taking a quick look around, he determined he was in Norwich. Well not Norwich exactly, a civil parish eight miles from it by the name of Weston Longville. But what was Romana doing all the way out here? He had assumed she would have repaired her ship and left the Earth by now. She was anything but a slow repairman.

It was a small place, population wise anyway, but it had its charm. Small settlements anywhere almost always had their certain charm and tranquillity. And it was one thing Romana liked. Unlike him, she did not constantly need to jump from one adventure to another. In fact, before she stayed in E-space, he had wandered off on his own many times because she was busy conducting experiments in the TARDIS.

After half an hour of walking about and focusing on a weak thread of Romana’s presence in his mind, the Doctor came across a somewhat secluded manor house. It looked to be old, 1600s maybe, and in need of some refit and fresh paint job but otherwise more than liveable. Judging by the masonry supplies under the tarp on the far end of the gravelled drive, the owner was attending to the problems at hand. Trying the door handle on the wrought iron entrance, he found it unlocked and walked through. As he approached the house, Romana’s presence got stronger. Was the owner someone she knew?

Any further questions he might have had came to a screeching halt when he stopped at the door and his hearts picked up a fast pace as his gaze locked in on the writings in the stone above the entrance. It said ‘House of Dvora’. There was no noble family on Earth in the past, present or future with that name. But there had been on Gallifrey so long ago. The Doctor was struggling to breathe properly, a myriad of emotions warring in him. She did not leave Earth but rather dwelt on it in a more permanent matter. After all this time, Romana still had the capacity to surprise him.

Lowering his gaze, he reached out with his fingers to trace them across another set of words newly etched in stone ‘Ever the same, ever the different’. Not quite what the words of House Dvora of Gallifrey were but entirely fitting for a Time Lord.

“Do you like them?” He froze in motion before he looked over his shoulder.

And there she was. Were it not for his senses or the fact he had seen her before, the Doctor would have easily dismissed Romana for another human with a slightly quirky hair colour choice. Jeans, boots and jumper. How human.

“Technically, it could be House of Heartshaven but it’s not where I was loomed so Dvora it is. And then there’s my name.”

“Romana.”

One eyebrow went up, “Bit slow today, are we? You hit your head on something?”

“No, no. I- How long has it been for you?”

“Why Doctor, that question shouldn’t really be asked with fear. I am not one of your mortal companions that could flicker away from you in a blink. But to answer your question, it has been fifty nine days since the Dalek invasion of Earth and you running away.” Her green eyes stared at him with a shrewd gaze that always made him squirm a bit and her head tilted. “Though I suspect it has been far longer for you.”

“Four years.”

“Naturally.”

She closed the distance between them and tapped his jaw before grabbing the doorknob and walking in, leaving it open for him to follow if he chose to do so. Well, he didn’t come all the way here to remain standing outside on the gravelled driveway.

Taking a lick of the wood, he determined that the entrance hall and adjacent sitting room were the oldest parts of the house. He had never seen either house Dvora or Heartshaven but he imagined the fresh colour schemes were done to reflect them.

“The woodwork still needs some occasional replacements and repairs but I have found rather skilled workers who are accurate with restoration so it doesn’t stick out like a sore eye.”

The Doctor stuck his hands in the coat’s pocket as he followed behind her, “Any particular reason as to why this house?”

“Well, I was looking for something remote but not like North Pole remote and found this quaint little thing. Needs some fixing touch but it’s perfectly sound to live in. And then there’s the fifteen acres of land that allow me to hide the Starhunter on the ground rather than under.”

“You realise they have the technology to detect foreign objects now?”

Romana laughed curtly as they entered the kitchen area, “It’s a military starcraft outfitted with cloaking technology unlike any other in the known time and space; and a perception filter. It’s been parked on the land for weeks now, no one is the wiser. I checked.”

He allowed himself to smile upon hearing the pride and smugness in her voice, something she always expressed when she did rather clever things. And there had been periods of time when that was quite often.

“Nice.”

“So Doctor,” Romana reached for the bottle of scotch, poured some into two tumblers and pushed one towards him before sitting on top of the kitchen counter rather than the chair like a normal person. “What brings you here and now?”

“I was thinking-”

“Oh, that’s a dangerous thing for you; let me check that all the stars are still in their correct positions.”

“Would you let me speak?”

That sharp smile she adopted for this regeneration appeared on her lips, “Far from me to prevent the Doctor from speaking.”

“I thought that we should go somewhere, you and I. Any place in time and space, your choice.”

“Really? And what would be the purpose of this outing?”

He shrugged, his hands toying with the still full tumbler. It was a fine vintage, he could smell it but this regeneration was not big on it.

“To reacquaint. To get to know each other again.”

She paused in her sip, “We can do that by exchanging thoughts through that weak bond we have. Are you hoping whatever mess you land us into will distract me from asking questions you don’t want to answer?”

“Romana please; I want to know you again.”

“You know me. And I know you. One outing will not change our current personalities. And this time I will not regenerate willingly to appease the wishes and demands of someone else. That’s how I landed with this.”

“I know. Just...let’s just try it.”

*****

Her fingers were itching to slap him or at the very least throw the scotch in his face. He was the most infuriating person ever. First, he kicks her out of the TARDIS so he could be a walking, melodramatic tragedy on his own and now he wants to basically go on a date with her because wants them to get to know each other again. What was the point? It’s not as if she will suddenly just drop her ruthlessness because he smiled at her.

Why did she pick him of all the Time Lords? So many suitors, much better ones. But no, she had to go and pick a renegade. A renegade Time Lord that blazed through time and space with such noise and ungraceful steps yet could also be as silent and unnoticed as he chose to be.  Still, she doubted she would have ever had chosen someone else. From the moment they met all those centuries ago, when he opened his very rarely shut gob, Romana just knew he was the Time Lord she would ever consider on doing the full bonding with. Well, there was one other Time Lord, but she had been gone from Romana’s eyes years before she met the Doctor.

He was here now, asking to come with him. She wanted to go. But somewhere at the back of her mind, a fearful feeling kept scratching at her. What if this date of their just serves to push a further wedge between them? She knew she was right. He had already time away from the war and she was barely two months out of it. Both scarred and hurting and not able to get past their stubbornness, keeping to the familiar waters rather than stepping into the unknown together.   
  
Despite asking her to come, he was still avoiding to establish eye contact with her. Like she would burn him or something. Or perhaps he feared the bond between them might complete and he could never fully hide from Romana ever again. He was, after all, not a great telepath. Superb by every other standard but barely above average by Gallifreyan standards. She on the other hand, was rather good and precise. A lengthy eye contact would allow her to peer inside his mind easily for she already had a light foothold in it.

It was foolish. It was a waste of time. It would hurt them even more than they already were. Still, there was this thrum beneath her skin, a craving for an adventure. And regardless of what destination he would promise her, she knew they would end up in the middle of some wild situation that needs fixing. They almost always did. But such things happened when a renegade Time Lord piloted an impulsive museum piece of a ship.

“And what exactly did you have in mind for this uh…reacquaintance date?”

That was all she needed to say in order for him to light up like a child on Christmas morning, “We never got to see the Floating Gardens of Ermina colony.”

“How about we simply let TARDIS take us somewhere? That way I won’t be disappointed if the place we end up is not the gardens.”

“Fair enough.”

Romana slid off the counter, “Alright then. Where is the TARDIS anyway, I haven’t seen her on the driveway.”

“Yeah, I parked closer to the village.” He admitted with a small smile and pulling on his ear.

“Ah, so you haven’t mastered precision landing yet. Will you ever?” She couldn’t help to ask playfully.

“Shut up. Let’s go.”

Romana shook her head, trailing after his rapidly moving figure, “You are so lucky that the workers aren’t here today. Or I would have had you go back to TARDIS by yourself and bring her here.”

“You’d enjoy doing that.”

“Pot meet kettle. You enjoy bossing people around just as well when it suits you.”

“If you say so, Lady President.”

“Oi, watch it there, sandshoes.”

He stopped in his steps and turned on his heel, giving her a very affronted look which in Romana’s mind, made him look all the more adorably ridiculous. “They’re not sandshoes!”

“Yes, they are.”

All the way to the TARDIS, he kept on blabbing away on how his shoes are not sandshoes and that it’s not his fault she lacked in fashion department. Even if she would not outright verbalise it, she had missed this. He could go off on any subject at any given time and would not stop unless interrupted in some way or would run out of subject-related information, though this rarely happened. It was one of those attributes she found to be both charming and bothersome. But his blabbing was preferable to silence. Silence meant dark and unspoken thoughts, worry and insecurity.

The old girl greeted her with a joyful hum in her mind and whirring noises that echoed through the console room upon their entrance. And just like she didn’t very much like how Torchwood Hub looked like in that sewer chic, this crossover of sea urchin/coral desktop that looked like someone had not taken care off for at least a century at least was equally unappealing. The quiet, almost mournful hum told Romana that the old girl was growing tired of it as well but didn’t want to change until her Time Lord was ready to move on as well.

“Right then!” The Doctor exclaimed, rushing about the console like a child on a sugar rush. “Some place random. Somewhere great!”

Before she even had the chance to ask him if the randomiser was still in the control console, the TARDIS lurched into the vortex, forcing her to hold tightly on the railings. They swayed about for a good minute before the telltale sound of landing was heard.

“Alright then, Romanadvoratrelundar! Let’s see where we are.” He ran past her and pulled the door open.

Romana let go off the railing and trailed after him, closing the door behind her. Instantly her eyes compensated for the darkness outside. It was night; two moons shone clearly in the sky and cast light over a vast forest of red-leafed trees. In fact, that was all that she could see. Trees and nothing else.

She could not help herself, “An expansive woodland. How interesting.”

“Now, Romana, I’m pretty sure something-” A rather loud scream echoed through the forest in front of them.

The Doctor grinned at her before whipping out his sonic and running off towards the forest. Romana sighed, retrieved her own sonic and followed him. And now it begins.

*****

Ruavu Haern had witnessed a great number of distressing events since his juvenility. His people had been aware outsiders visiting their world for a long time now but when he was a youngster this changed. Most of their visitors did not even speak with them, walking through the deep shades of their vast forests to the gleaming mountains of Tarun to collect a number of shining, healing stones and bathe in one of numerous viridian healing pools. And yet, that one night instead of quiet trespassers, his people were assaulted with a great noise of explosions, fire and screams as it reduced their homes to nothing but ashes. Even now, three solar circles later, he had no idea who their invaders were or what they wanted.

Maybe tonight he would finally get answers. His people would get answers. If only their unlikely saviours would stop arguing. He had been observing the most unusual bipedal beings wearing variously sized pieces of cloths ever since they had arrived and rescued Tulol from one of the war beasts their invaders had set loose in all the forests surrounding the gleaming mountains.

“You didn’t need to kill them! They could have given us answers we need!”

“Oh, get off your high horse; they were at best warrior initiates. The Rignil warmasters do not send out their best warriors to chase stragglers. And they have been most useful.” The dark-white haired biped was, in Ruavu’s opinion, much more intimidating and collected, having used nothing but a hunting knife by the looks of it to kill Tulol’s chasers and was now using it to pry open the armour.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for the transmitter. They all have them imbedded in their armour suits. It should have the access codes to the base. Why don’t you ask our terrified friend over there if they can’t give you any more information on what happened here?”

The dark-haired biped did not look too pleased with the given instruction but changed its facial expression when they turned to Tulol. Tulol was still frozen to the spot, staring at the slashed bodies of his would be killers. For so long they believed nothing and no one could save them from their invaders. And now, perhaps they would be saved by unlikely beings.

“Hello there.” The biped addressed Tulol in a soothing tone. “What is your name?”

Tulol’s reply was barely a whisper and Ruavu had to move forward from his hiding spot to hear it, “N-name?”

“What are you called? Something that is yours and no one else’s.”

“Tulol.”

“Tulol, that’s a nice name. I’m the Doctor and that over there is Romana. Do you know who was chasing you?”

“No. They came in the night, long ago before I began, with fire.”

“Do you know why?”

Tulol shook his head.

“Alright then. Do you have somewhere to hide?”

Before Tulol could answer, the biped called Romana spoke, “Perhaps he will be safe with our observer.”

“The what?”

Ruavu froze. They knew. The biped knew of his presence. He could run or come down. But something told him that the bipeds would not give chase and it would be dishonourable to leave Tulol on his own in the forest.

“We have had a shadow ever since we arrived here four hours ago. Come on out, we will not hurt you.”

Recognising the futility of keeping silence, Ruavu left his hiding spot and came down which prompted Tulol to squeal with joy and immediately stick to Ruavu’s side. The bipeds were smiling at them but there was a tension he did not understand. They saved Tulol but disagreed over whether to kill the assailants. Strange beings.

“Do you have any information related to the Rignils?” Romana asked, twirling the hunting knife in their hand with ease, causing some drops of the brown blood to fly in random directions from its tip.

“Rignils?”

“Your invaders are called Rignils and they rarely invade worlds like yours. There’s little challenge in battles where their enemies cannot fight back properly.”

Ruavu shook his head, “We never saw what they look like and they have not spoken to us even once. They released their war beasts into our forests and barred the ways to the gleaming mountains of Torun after burning several of our settlements.”

“These gleaming mountains of yours, what is so special about them?” The Doctor asked.

“They are the source of Torun River that feeds numerous viridian healing pools. And we collect the healing stones.”

“Healing? That makes no sense; Rignils prefer to die in the agony of their war begotten wounds rather than take the time off to heal.”

“Apparently these do not.” The Doctor countered. “No use of standing around here, might as well go check.”

Romana rolled her eyes, “As if you would walk away.”

“Mm....Anyway, it was nice to meet you Tulol and Ruavu, I suggest you find a shelter or make your way home. I promise your invaders are going to leave soon.”

“But how can you make such a promise? Who are you two?”

The Doctor shrugged, “Just travellers passing by.”

“Sure we are.”

“Would you cut it out with the sarcasm? This is serious.”

“Everything seems to be serious with you. Stars above, you need to get laid as humans say.”

“Romana!”

“What? It’s true.” Romana sheathed the knife and flashed a smile at Tulol and Ruavu. “You best be off to your home now.”

Without another word, the two bipeds started to walk towards the gleaming mountains and Rignil base, picking up their argument yet again. Ruavu shook his head. Strange beings. They most certainly loved each other but for some reason could not communicate with quieter, kinder words. Perhaps after this is over, the guardian star Otrina would bless them with tranquillity and guidance. It looked like they needed it.

*****

The laughter of children playing filled Romana’s ears as a welcome background noise whilst she stared into nothing. They had been sitting on the bench for close to an hour now, without saying a word. A wise decision on both of their parts. Words have already hurt them. Perhaps she should have employed a bit restraint in her killing spree but honestly, when the Rignil warmaster stated his warriors hunted the native populace as a form of a pastime while they extracted valuable compounds from the centre of the mountains that imbued the water with healing properties, Romana’s inhibitions vanished.

By the time she was done, brown blood was splattered over every possible surface, including her clothes and face. She had sheathed the still blood slicked knife and searched their database thoroughly for clues on who might have sent Rignils to the planet because they certainly did not discover it on their own. There was nothing but a number identification tag associated with several transmissions that relayed necessary information about the planet and its particular wealth to the Rignils.

Naturally, when the Doctor came to the command floor, he immediately yelled at her, angry for not showing mercy as if Rignils were going to just let them wander in and leave with information alive. After pointing that out and the fact that blowing up the base with Rignils still inside was killing just as well though perhaps not as graphic; Romana received an offhanded but no less deeply stinging comment about being no better than the Daleks at which point she had slapped him, possibly returned the insult with the title of Butcher of Skull Moon before marching out of the base.

The flight back to Earth was full of silence and bitter regret of ever agreeing to this. If it looked at moments he would actually apologise, he quickly aborted the action by the shake of a head and looking at the monitor in front of him. TARDIS tried to soothe both of them but it was clear now that distance between them wouldn’t be mended by going on an adventure like they did before.

And now they were here, people walking in various directions, children clamouring about their playground while two of them were sitting each in their own corner of the bench and pondered where and when they became so different. At least she was. She had no idea what the Doctor was thinking. His mind was shut to her.

Well, she had a TARDIS to grow and a ship to fix. Among other things. Maybe when they both regenerated, they could try again. But this could not continue. And needs to stop before they truly broke themselves to pieces that could never be put back together. Romana flexed her fist couple of times before her brain forced her legs to move. Away from the Doctor and his blue box.

Every step she took felt heavier than the last one and the frail endings of their unfinished bond were slowly but painfully unravelling. This is why Time Lords did their best to not be greatly emotionally invested in their relationships. The sheer intensity of emotions that forged the bond in love and acceptance also caused a great deal of pain when the same bond would come to the breaking point. They were too different. This time, the chasm was too wide.

And then she startled at the feel of fingertips dragging a feather touch over her neck before he grabbed her hand. But she could not find the strength to turn and look up. His long fingers entwined with hers, not letting go. Warm breath replaced the ghostly feather touch on her neck.

“Please. Just try.”

Cursed and blessed be the day the White Guardian disguised himself as the Lord President of Gallifrey; and sent her 125-year-old self with a core to Key of Time to the renegade Time Lord called the Doctor. She had never learned to walk away when he said please. And he rarely said please with such honesty. The deep breath left her lips and she finally willed her body to turn, to look at those hazel brown eyes.

“Tea?”

There was no smile on his handsome young face but the relieved joy was obvious, his mind surging back to hers and greedily fixing the unravelled ends of the still unfinished bond.

“Yes. Come.”

 


End file.
